Micky Hingorani
Forum Replies Created
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When resources are insufficient to support formal formative research activities, what I would do first is to understand what resources we have already had and to see if there are some connections that have already been established between community stakeholders and our team. For instance, our team is going to implement a community engagement plan for an HIV prevention trial among MSM in China. Some of our team members have had several years of experience working with community stakeholders in our targeted communities and maintained a good relation with them. I think in a resource-limited setting, we could start with those already existing connections to do outreach, and through those connections then we can encourage personal referrals among community stakeholders and to gather more information needed for our program planning and implementation.
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in times of limited resources, we engage with already existing NGOs to give us a direction on what to expect and how to interact with the community. Afterwards we use the local media, local village heads and religious leaders to engage stakeholders. With religious leaders we ask for a few minutes after the church to just engage with the congregation and hear their views on our research agenda.
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– We did not have Community Liaison Officer, we relied on over the passage information about events happening within the community.
– The CAB was not effective as it is now, hence the CAB duties were not happening.
– WBOT- It was difficult to have a joint venture with them due to lack of understanding.
– Community events-Information by Community members.
– Our site is situated next to Community clinic but we did not have the authority to recruit from the clinic, we had to issue/distribute pamphlets fro outside the clinic premises for those participants who have interest.
– Lack of transport- In order for us to reach the informal settlements and surroundings we used public transport, we had to carry recruitment equipment’s for example tables , chairs, gazebos, we were 2 recruiters. -
When resources are insufficient to support formal formative research activities we work with the community stakeholders in order to participate in already defined events by the community, in order to have some discussion and meetings to do an initial information gathering.
The CAB it is crucial to help to increase the community networks, as also in the initial outreach, by identifying key people in the community, NGOs, social media, political figures, religious figures, researchers, and mapping the community.
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When resources are insufficient to support formative formal research activities, there is an increased need to engage existing networks or partners. Grassroots groups such as community groups – women’s group, parents groups in schools, other more established groups such as the Red Cross, the disaster offices and academia all play a vital role in reaching the community. Churches and sports organizations also form an important entry point to the community. Additionally, the media – both formal and informal, also play a role in information gathering, confirmation and dissemination.
Family units cannot be left out and through schools, parents can be reached.In order to make initial outreach and information gathering a positive exercise, the community must be engaged and made to understand the benefits of the research. Moreover, if there is an economic saving to the community, people usually buy-in the idea as long as they realize the long term benefits to be enjoyed especially if it will save the community money and save lives.
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Inviting people that represent the studied population and listening what the participants speak about their specificities. This is in the CAC meetings.
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When resources are insufficient for formal formative research, we collaborate with Ministry of Health, National AIDs Council, NACA, SACA, LSACA, Global Fund, FHI 360, Heartland Alliance International, International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD), Nigeria Network of People who Use Drugs (NNPUD), and other partners & community based organizations. We proceed to identify our key stakeholders; we collaborate with our community stakeholders in mapping the different sites and communities in which the research proceedings will take place. However, we used all the above, even with insufficient resources we have been able to facilitate the participation of community stakeholders in initial outreach and information gathering.
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We manage to facilitate the participation of community stakeholders in initial outreach and information gathering by taking full advantage of informal research. The information is collected on ongoing bases inside and out the organisation. Usually we will gather the information through the conversation amongst the community stakeholders,sometimes we will use the community churches, community meetings or perhaps use the local clinics as they go there for their visits. The most effective way is to also encourage our team members to spend great deal of time communicating informally with the potential community stakeholders,get involved with the community to exchange ideas and concerns.
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When resources are inadequate for formal formative research, there are several informal avenues through which a research team can enable community stakeholder participation in initial outreach and information gathering. These include stakeholder identification, community mapping, and community forums and so on. For instance, community forums can bring together people who have a common concern for HIV prevention (or any other issue for that matter): members of the public who are interested in biomedical HIV prevention with the research team, officials of the ministry of health, elected officials, politicians, HIV prevention advocacy and activist groups. In fact, anyone can attend. They are supposed to be very interactive. There’s open dialogue in these forums which allows the experts share their knowledge and experience and the public can also ask questions, and share their views and concerns. They are a good way to generate public awareness about issues and they can be big or small depending on the resources available.
To augment our formal formative research activities, our study relied on a number of informal strategies to facilitate the participation of community stakeholders in initial outreach and information gathering. The CAB was very instrumental to implementing some of these strategies.
After we had identified key stakeholders, we collaborated with our community stakeholders in mapping the different communities surrounding our study sites. The events didn’t cost much money. We saved money by using meeting rooms in the study sites graciously given free of charge by the management of the hospitals. With this came the audio-visual equipment and electricity also free of charge. We only had to spend money on refreshments and the transportation allowance given to the community stakeholders who attended.
The CAB chairman in one of our study sites is also the chairman of the district chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). Through his influence and connections, the CAB and research team were able to gain access to the leadership of several churches in the district. We obtained permission to make announcements about the study during church services, and give health talks generally about HIV and specifically about the study. Through this we were able to reach a large segment of the community very early in the research.
We’ve also had forums with the support groups for people living with HIV/AIDS in the different towns served by our hospital. By discussing with them we have been able to know the possible barriers and challenges our target population were likely to face and their concerns about participating in the study. These were taken into account when designing the research protocol. -
Key stakeholders need to be deliberately targeted at onset with research information. The research team needs to spell the scarcity of resources to the key stakeholders reached. A mechanism between community stakeholders and research team on casting the net wider to the broader stakeholder picture could be reached through a participatory ,open and transparent involvement strategy. Community stakeholders will look at the benefits of the research intervention and will open doors for researchers to leverage on already existent community structures and platforms where stakeholders already gather to discuss health matters.
Looking at existing national or local level HIV/AIDS Coordination meetings and allowing the research team to operate within that purview will be an important step towards taking advantage of already existent community engagement endeavors.
Allowing the participation of community based organizations is also a key step. These small organizations know their communities better and play a leading role in sending out research messages and open doors for low cost community penetration avenues.-
Hi Stanford and thanks for your post.
You made a valid point about researchers leveraging on already existing community structures. I agree that this would help in managing insufficient resources while at the same provide opportunities for establishing meaningful and mutually beneficial relationships with the community stakeholders throughout the research process. For example, in one of our study sites, existing community structures include the traditional authorities, town union, age grade unions, women’s wing of the town union, church structures and other religious platforms, the annual “August meeting” for women among others. At the clinical research site itself, we identified the antenatal clinic, Well Baby clinic, paediatric HIV clinic and general outpatient clinics. We took advantage of all these existing structures in our initial outreach to raise awareness about HIV prevention and educate the community stakeholders about our study.-
Thank you so much Nkiru for noting my contribution. Sorry for the delayed response.
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The first step was to educate the most influential people in the local area and community leaders about research and encourage them to talk about research activities during their community gatherings. This was used as a tool to stimulate awareness about research in the community and may go an extra mile in terms of understanding the value of participating.
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In our research centre have a community advisory group (GAG). The group meet with research centre staff members periodically to discuss and raise any concerns about the research activities in their local areas.
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Hi everyone,
I love the sentiments! When we talk about ‘goal-setting, ensuring a common purpose and shared values..etc’ how do really ensure wider participation of groups, even for harder to reach populations, beyond just the CAB? What procedures or specific mechanisms are you using to ensure their feedback?